Prophet of ConFree (The Prophet of ConFree) (15 page)

We slipped in one by one, silent, leaving our E's outside. It was dark in there – cool air. No, a soft multicolored glow was gently lighting up the interior. My eyes were drawn to the great silvery Legion cross on the wall, and the massive black horizontal slab under it. White letters were flowing slowly right to left along the slab – names, numbers. Above the names, little full-color portraits. Faces – young faces. Males, females, looking hopefully into the future. Stained glass windows let in colorful beams of light.

There was a long horizontal arm rest over a padded knee rest that stretched almost wall to wall. A few troopers were kneeling there, eyes closed, or just looking out blankly at the list of names.

The Monument to the Dead. I kneeled. What else could I do? I wanted to see what it was like. Some other squadies were doing the same. I knew the Legion was not religious. Deadman was just a symbolic representation of all the immortals who had died for the Legion, for ConFree – and for me.

I forced myself to look at the moving list. A Legion Cross, a young kid with sandy hair and a big smile, the unit designation 6/12, his serial number 320017312, his squad position Echo 4, warname Spider, date 278/08/19 – over a hundred years ago! – and the final line:
DIED IN SERVICE
. Then he disappeared, off the slab, but there were plenty of other souls following him. More portraits, more info, more dates. I stopped focusing. It was peaceful and quiet.

Bees knelt beside me, eyes closed, praying. Just whispering, barely audible. This time I could hear what she was saying.

"Angel of God my guardian dear,

To whom His love entrusts me here,

Ever this night be at my side,

To light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen."

She opened her eyes, and made a sign over her face, something like a Legion cross, but not a Legion cross. A single tear slid down one cheek and she angrily rubbed it away. Then she got up and left.

Somebody described the Monument to the Dead as a chapel for soldiers without souls. Well, I disagree with that. And I don't care what anybody else says.

Δ

"This thing is amazing," Arie said. He was gazing into a little d-screen perched on the table between us, and it was, indeed, amazing. We were in a quiet dox shop in the heart of Providence City, although it was more like a charming little provincial town than a city. It was our first time in Providence proper, which was several K away from the base. We were both wearing formal black Legion uniforms. It felt strange. We had just finished with Hell Week, which topped off our Legion training. It was a week of total agony, unending pain, hatred and terror and frustration and utter exhaustion, marching without end, crawling through the mud with live rounds ripping over your head, dragging huge ammopacks with you, rescuing your buddies, carrying them out of danger, climbing steep mountains, leaping off cliffs, swimming icy streams like a snake, no sleep, battling soaring temperatures that dropped me like a stone from heat prostration, crawling through wet underground tunnels on the verge of caving in, climbing up ropes, rappelling down buildings, advancing under fire, clearing a town…it went on for a week, but nobody quit. Nobody. Everybody in Delta had made it. Even me.

"Look at that," Arie continued. "That's the Target A residence. The eyemote is locked on Target A right now, but we can switch to Target B whenever we want. Where did you get this thing?"

"Promise you won’t tell." I took a sip of dox. Excellent! "It was Scout. He's just amazing. He's got a private bag of tricks you wouldn't believe."

"Do we have to give this back?"

"Sure do – upon completion of the mission." Eyemotes were pretty spectacular little devices built for recon or espionage. An eyemote was the size of a mote of dust, invisible to the eye, but it could follow any designated target all day and night, relay both audio and vid, and allow you to shadow somebody without ever exposing your interest. Just what we needed.

"It's almost 1500."

"Well, keep looking. They're supposed to meet at 1500, right there, that's what we heard."

"And then we see where they go."

"They'll walk, it's a small town and no aircars allowed downtown. They'll walk. All we need is for them to pause somewhere."

"Then we attack."

"Correct. You ready?"

"Bet your ass!"

Δ

The eyemote worked perfectly. We tracked the targets to an upscale shopping mall, then waited patiently until they finally stopped moving. They sat at an outdoor refreshments table and ordered drinks and snacks. Just the two of them, A and B. Perfect! By then we were just around the corner.

"Ready?"

"Go!" We put on our official Legion sunglasses, adjusted our field caps and proceeded to the target.

We stopped directly in front of their table and snapped to attention. Both girls gaped up in surprise.

"Miss Sheila Dantos?" I asked.

"Miss Katrina Weyvoulias?" Arie asked.

They both stared wide-eyed, mouths open. Finally Honeyhair spoke. "Uh, yes! What is it?" She was clearly alarmed by the black uniforms and our serious demeanors.

"Special delivery for Miss Sheila Dantos," I said, handing Honeyhair a thick envelope engraved with a Legion cross and bearing her name.

"Special delivery for Miss Katrina Weyvoulias," Arie said, handing Blondie an identical envelope with her name.

We stood there like statues as they carefully opened the envelopes, stealing frightened glances toward us as they did so. I knew there was no way they were going to recognize us. We had been two pasty-faced kids on the
Bold Lady
and now we were both deeply tanned from months in the field, all pumped up, clad in those sinister black uniforms and hiding behind sunglasses as well. The enclosed invitation for Honeyhair began:

From time to time they looked up at us, still open-mouthed. Then a slow smile crept over Blondie's lips. She punched Honeyhair on the arm.

"Those are the two kids who hit on us in the Bold Lady," she said. "Remember? We were going swimming?"

Honeyhair slowly recovered, looking us over carefully, obviously stunned. "Wow," she said, feebly.

"Isn’t that right?" Blondie asked us.

"That's right, Ma'am," I said, continuing to stand at attention. "The pool was off limits for us. We regret not being able to accommodate you at that time."

"We need an official response to these invitations, Ma'am," Arie said.

"We'll both be graduating from the Course and would be honored to invite you both, Ma'am," I said. "It's tomorrow, 1800 hours. We have arranged transportation for you both."

"You ignored us," Honeyhair said. "We invited you to the pool and you just never showed up."

"We were children, Ma'am," I replied. "But we're men now. We wish to apologize for our past uncivilized behavior and show you how serious we are. We have dinner reservations at the Top of the Town for 1800 tonight and in the meantime, we can enjoy the view up there and we can explain to you the gravity of the situation."

"Gravity of the situation? What do you mean?" Blondie seemed puzzled.

"We're both in love with you, Ma'am," Arie said. "That is, I am in love with you, Miss Weyvoulias, and my friend is in love with Miss Dantos."

Blondie started laughing, and could not stop. "Will you...please take off those stupid sunglasses?" she choked.

"Yes Ma'am," we said simultaneously, and snapped off the glasses.

Honeyhair was about to say something – probably a devastating put-down – when Blondie smacked her again on the arm. "Shut down, Sheila," she said. "No wiseass comments. These two have outsmarted us big-time. Boys, we'll be happy to accompany you to the Top of the Town tonight, and to the graduation tomorrow. We haven't had anybody in love with us since…"

"Yesterday," Honeyhair added quickly.

Δ

The Top of the Town was a fancy revolving restaurant perched atop Black Mountain Tower, a massive tall interstellar commo tower located on high ground halfway between Providence Town and the starport. By 1900 hours, the sun was heading for the horizon and the latest rainstorm had passed. It looked like it was going to be a clear night. The view was spectacular. We could see all of Providence, the nicely-designed town center with the parks-and-ring pedestrian roads, and all the public buildings with the nearby commercial section full of restaurants and shops, and more public gardens and parks. A huge lake sprawled along one side of town. The road leading to the Base was dotted with aircar guidance posts and the Base itself was visible on the horizon. On the other side of town more roads led to the starport, which was clearly visible. We were in the lounge, enjoying the sunset before starting dinner.

"You scared the hell out of me," Blondie admitted. "I thought we were going to be arrested, and I was reviewing our misdeeds and wondering what we had done that had gone so bad."

"You scared the hell out of me, too," Honeyhair said. "I thought something evil had happened to our parents, and you were there to tell us about it. You got us – I'll admit it."

"Sorry if we scared you," I said. "But we were worried that you might not even remember us, so we had to get your attention quickly."

"Well, you succeeded there," Honeyhair said, smiling faintly.

"To the future," I said, raising my glass. We clinked glasses and drank. We had ordered wine coolers.

"Before we talk about the future," Honeyhair said, "how about telling us your names?"

"Certainly," Arie said. "I'm Nitro, this is my friend Prophet. He's my sidekick."

"Well he's half right there," I said. "Actually I'm the main character and Nitro here is my sidekick."

"Nitro and Prophet? Blondie said. "What kind of names are those?"

"Those are Legion war names."

"War names? How did you get them? What do they mean?"

"Sorry, Ma'am, that's classified information. However, as Legion immortals, we are authorized to assign you war names as well, and we have done so."

"Immortals? You are?"

"Would you like to hear your war names?"

"Sure. I guess."

"Miss Dantos, your war name is Honeyhair. Miss Weyvoulias, your war name is Blondie."

"Blondie?" Blondie objected. "Couldn’t you do better than that?"

"Actually we had another name for you but we decided Blondie would be more suitable," Arie explained.

"What was the other name?"

"Lollypop. Would you prefer that?"

Blondie blushed scarlet, then replied "Uh, never mind, Blondie is fine." Honeyhair laughed out loud.

Δ

For dinner, we were seated at a table right next to the wide plex picture window, which afforded us a spectacular view of everything. It was night, the stars were out in all their glory and the city lights and the glow from the starport and the Base were stunning. The girls were well warmed up by then, relaxed and happy. I was completely relaxed for the first time since joining the Legion. I had not been this happy since grappling with Jailbait one rainy night in my dad's aircar.

"So are you both really immortal?" Blondie asked, wide-eyed. She had an innocent streak, which was often on display.

"Certainly are," I replied.

"You look a lot bigger now than before," Honeyhair said. "Both of you."

"Well, we are a lot bigger. Everywhere." I struck a strong-man pose with my arms.

"Everywhere?" Honeyhair asked.

"Everywhere," Arie assured her, with a little grin.

"Moving right along," Blondie said, picking up a menu, "we'd better decide what we're going to eat."

The meal was spectacular, delicious prime ribs with all the trimmings accompanied by a ruby red wine. I was so happy that I was almost sad. I suddenly realized that this was all an illusion. We would see these lovely girls for only one more day and then we'd be off almost immediately for Advanced Combat Training on another world, and would surely never see either one of them again. It was a big galaxy and the Legion didn't shuttle people around to see their girl friends, that's for sure.

How many young soldiers, I wondered, had gone through these same agonies? How many young girls had said goodbye for the last time to lovers or potential lovers they would never see again? How many soldiers would spend years in lonely cosmic outposts dreaming about a couple of innocent days they had shared with a girl, many long years ago?